NEW YORK, NY.- For a third consecutive season, Sothebys American Art auction has surpassed its pre-sale expectations  todays auction totaled $28,087,750, above a high estimate of $24.4 million*, and sold a strong 83.9% by lot. Highlights included:

 The enduring strength of the market for works by Norman Rockwell was felt throughout the sale  the six examples on offer together sold for an impressive $6.5 million, more than double their overall high estimate of $3 million. Seven bidders battled for Hes Going to Be Taller than Dad, a domestic scene of a boy and his faithful dog that fetched $2,629,000 (est. $500/700,000).

 This follows Sothebys November 2012 sale of American Art in which five works by Rockwell totaled $6.1 million, again demonstrating the continued appetite for works by the American icon.

 The top lot of the auction was John Singer Sargents Marionettes from 1907, which achieved $5,205,000 (est. $5/7 million). The highly personal painting remained in the artists collection for more than 20 years before descending through his family to the present owner.

 New world auction records were established for Milton Avery, William Keith and Irving Ramsey Wiles. Averys Music Makers, on offer from the estate of screen star Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique, achieved $2,965,000  double its $1.5 million high estimate.

 Together with three pieces offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale earlier this month, works from the Peck Estate have totaled $6.4 million at Sothebys this spring.

 Seven works emerging from important American museums together brought $2.9 million, including Stanton Macdonald-Wrights Trumpet Flowers that sold for $785,000 (est. $400/600,000). The painting was sold by the Museum of Modern Art to benefit the acquisitions fund, and was fittingly purchased by another East Coast museum. Frederic Remingtons Call the Doctor, sold by the Art Institute of Chicago, led the group with a price of $1,085,000 (est. $1/1.5 million).

 Several Western paintings and sculpture smashed expectations at the close of the sale: a heated competition drove William Keiths canvas Yosemite Valley to sell for $755,000, against a high estimate of $90,000; An Enemy That Warns, a bronze sculpture by Charles Marion Russell measuring just 5¼ inches tall, flew past its $60,000 high estimate on its way to achieving $460,000; and Henry Merwin Shradys bronze Monarch of the Plains brought $197,000, more than triple its high estimate of $60,000.